SANParks had a park called Vaalbos, in roughly the same area as Mokala. When Vaalbos was expropriated, SANParks bought the property that is now called Mokala National Park and moved the animals from Vaalbos to the new park. The property had been used as a hunting farm and there were some "special" trophy animals there and presumably some have remained.

One that comes to mind is the Copper Springbok - very dark blackish-brown with a white blaze down its face. There are also "witgat" zebras, with very white bums and reputed to be close to the original quagga (I don't know if they were "trophies" or just unusual). There are lots of sable on adjoining farms, so maybe they were leftovers from the hunting operation.

I believe there are TB-free buffalo as well.

I think that is what the question is all about. Perhaps someone can enlighten us further.

Probably better to ask then which animals were left by the hunters that are not endemic to the area.

The purpose of Mokala is to protect a number of very valuable species that occur in that habitat such as Roan, Sable and the Buffalo, and this is also why they will not introduce large carnivores (this was info from one of the rangers in the park)

Animals that were introduced by the hunters that are not endemic to the area and will be removed over time are the Bronze Springbuck, Blesbuck, Waterbuck and Njala which I can remember from the conversation.

it's true that one of the reasons lions will not be re-introduced is to protect the rare species (and the TB free buffalos) - another reason is to avoid inbreeding: the park is too small to hold a larger number of lion prides

as for leopards, I don't think they'd bring down a bigger number of roan and sables and thus pose a threat to their protection; however, leopards might use trees to jump over fences and disappear into neighbouring areas a lot of which are still hunting concessions - guess what would happen to them there...